NEED HELP interpeting legal land desciption from survey

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> The West 128.58 feet of the North 50 feet of the South 109 feet of Lot 38 (except the West 33 feet reserved for the street)
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My best estimate is that it describes a parallelogram 95.28 feet east-west by 50 feet north-south. Or it could represent 128.58 feet east-west with a reservation for road encumbering the western 33 feet by 50 feet north-south.

Well, it does appear to be 50 feet wide. Interpreting the other dimension is the concern. The person who assembled that description was not a surveyor or, at least, not a good one.

One first needs to know the dimensions of the original lot from which this smaller tract was taken. The method used to except the 33 feet for the street is what makes this fuzzy. It may have been the 128 number or it may have been 33 feet more than that. If it was the 128 number, the net would be about 95 feet. Is your assumption of it being 125 feet based on something solid or is this something you were merely told by someone?

What concerns me most is the reference to a tax map. Around here, the tax map is an approximation, at best. Somewhere else it may be good as gold.

What state and county are you in? That may help as others find this message.

>The West 128.58 feet of the North 50 feet of the South 109 feet of Lot 38 (except the West 33 feet reserved for the street)

The tax map should help you visualize this, but a sketch should do the job too.
1. Draw a rectangle to representing Lot 38 (any rectangle will serve for understanding the description-you can draw it to scale or not).
2. Draw a line to mark off the south 109 feet of lot 38.
3. From that line in step 2, drop down 50 feet to mark off the north 50 and the south 59 of the 109.
4. Draw a line to mark off the west 128.58 of your 50-ft strip. It is now a 128.58 x 50 lot.
5. Draw a line to take the west 33 feet off of your strip to make the road. This description is not clear as to whether the road's 33 ft was sold (taken in fee) or (more likely) is an easement, but either way you don't have full use of it.

This leaves you with 95.58 by 50 as the useful part of the lot according to the deed.

No surveyor who is explaining things clearly will say something is because it's "how the property lines are represented in the tax maps." Tax maps are for parcel identification, and are not the ruling authority on where the boundaries are. They should have made their determination from the deed history and physical evidence.

The surveyors should have looked into the history enough to confirm these prior transactions, looked for evidence marking out the corners on the ground, noted the occupation lines, and weighed all the evidence to determine what physical evidence might take precedence over numbers in a deed. Original monuments that have been relied on usually take precedence over numbers.

Here's what I'm reading

The lot's 128.58' x 50', less the west 33':

From the SW corner of Lot 38, go North 69 feet and East 33 feet to the SW corner of the tract, the tract appears to be a 50' from N-S and 95.58 from E-W.
Hire a surveyor, the solution is usually not that simple.

I stand corrected, North 59 feet not 69

We are are in Cook County Illinois.

Two adjoining plats were purchased by my great uncle. He sold one of the plats to my grandfather and description I listed in my original post in the one on the deed to describe it.

I thought this might help.

The real issue is that my parents have a three car garage built on the rear of the property that would be on the neighbors property if the surveyor is correct.

I apologize that I don't know the right terminology and I so appreciate your help. I have been looking online all day for someone to help.

Thank you.

First off, tax maps mean very little. They even tell you to click the "I know it" button before you view them on line. Hire a surveyor for sure, and maybe an attorney.

Here's what I'm reading

The way they threw in mention of the street bugs me. I have encountered some descriptions in the past that read one way but were intended to be read another. My example goes to a case of a section of a city where the blocks were simply split into four lots by running a line from the west midpoint of the block to the east midpoint of the block and another from the south midpoint to the north midpoint. Each lot was then 200 feet east-west by 167.50 feet north-south. Many years later a 15-foot wide alley was inserted through all of the blocks running east-west. This effectively cut all lots such that the net north-south dimension was 160.00 feet. In some cases a lot was later split into a north half/south half situation. The problem was in the wording because what most really meant was two tracts with each being 80.00 feet wide instead of 83.75 feet wide with one poor guy losing 7.50 feet of his 83.75 feet. It would be no problem if one tract was 80 foot and the other was 87.50 but subject to the 7.50 foot taken for the alley.

That is why I am very curious as to the true original dimensions of the specific lot in our inquisitor's case.

I agree

There's a fly in the buttermilk there somewhere. If there is a "three car garage" that has occupied a possibly ambiguous described parcel, it's time to call in the artillery (spelled L-A-W-Y-E-R). More than just a survey problem in other words

To better understand this, we'd really need the legal description of lot 38, or better yet, the plat for the entire subdivision. The worst way to make assumptions is to only use the legal description of the subject parcel. We need to understand what the intention was of the conveyance of your parents lot. Distances may mean very little in this situation.

You should also research the adjoiners deeds to see if where they think they hold title to that portion.

My two cents...

Thank you all for your input. The owner of the adjoining lot is my dad's brother. He was not aware that the land may be his but may put up a fight over it. I am going to the county assessors office tomorrow to see if I can take a look at the plat map of the subdivision. What is truly strange is that if the description on the deed is correct, it would cut off any access to the public alleyway. Also, none of these issues came up when the garage permitting happened in the late 90's.

It's unlikely anyone can definitively answer this in this forum with the information given, but here's my advice:
Tax maps and/or the assessor's office don't hold a lot of weight.
Get a copy of the plat/description of the parent parcel.
Get a copy of the adjoiner's descriptions.
Research any surveys that may have been recorded in the area.
All of this should be available at your county recorder's office or online possibly. If you know anyone that works for a title company, they may be able to help find this too.

Of course hiring a Registered Land Surveyor should take care of all of the above.

The Cook County Recorder of Deeds has a website that has searchable indexes. The address below should guide you there, or you might just have to google it. This quick search can shine some light on your situation.

You should still seek out a Professional Surveyor and/or lawyer to reach a decision.

http://12.218.239.81/i2/default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

You are a wonderful group of professionals. I have gotten far more help here in just a few hours than all day online.

I cannot say thanks enough. We are currently working with an attorney so we continue our quest to get it figured out.

Again, a sincere thank you for your time and advice.

Kristin

You are way ahead of the typical layman with your quick sketches and knowledge of the potential issues involved. You should have ZERO problems.

The West 33' Comes Out Of Lot 33, Not the Small Lot

So the depth would be whole.

Take a careful look at what the West 33 feet exception is from, i.e. Lot 38.

In Court you also have color of title that includes the garage.

Of course we would also need to see the neighbor's description.

Paul in PA

The West 33' Comes Out Of Lot 33, Not the Small Lot

If you know the section township and range give Sidwell a call 630-549-1100 commercial depatment and they will email you a PDF of the tax map for $25. If you go to the Assessors office its $10 but add in the train/parking/taxi and wandering around downtown and its a bargain. You can get the recording information of the subplat off the tax map. Once you have that send a fax (that is the only way you can contact them)to Property Insight attn: Carol Hobe 312-223-5908 include your contact info and email address as well as your tax pin number and the name and recording info of the subplat and they can email or mail you a copy of the subplat for $30 the county recorder is $60 minimum and a very stern "come back in 2 hours for it". Illinois is a non-recording state when it comes to surveys so the recorder will not have anything. Best bet would be to ask Chicago title or First American (check your title insurance policy if you have one). You can also look at the county GIS by googling "Cook viewer". Lastly if your plat is pre 1874 than it burned in the great chicago fire. Property Insight (formerly Chicago-Title) has assembled alot of the available old stuff stamped "ante-fire".